I hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend and can enjoy this beautiful day.  Spring has most definitely sprung. I love the spring season because it’s the season where we celebrate the “new”.  And this spring, here at Central, we have some pretty significant “new” to celebrate! “New” is the word I associate with baptism, as baptism marks the entrance into a new life, a new way of living, a new community, a new calling, and a new story. So starting

This – the last week of Lent – is what is known as Holy Week. It is during this week that Jesus first served the Lord’s Supper to his disciples and got down on his hands and knees to wash their feet. I’m so glad that on Sunday, not only did we celebrate Palm Sunday to kick off the week, but we also heard about the meaning and challenge of the foot washing before we got to celebrate the Lord’s

This Sunday, if you don’t know, is what is called Palm Sunday. It’s the Sunday before Easter, where across the world, Christians celebrate the day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem as a King. We give out palms in order to remember and represent the palms that the people spread out on the road as Jesus rode into the city.  It’s supposed to be a Sunday where were celebrate him as King, as they celebrated him then. But there’s something so interesting

When I type the word “membership” into Google, after the dictionary definitions pop up, the very first entries are about Costco, Planet Fitness, the National Restaurant Association, the American Medical Association, and so on. These are all stores, gyms, associations, or clubs that you join (either by paying or by earning your way in), and once you are “in”, as members, you are entitled to all kinds of benefits (2% back on all purchases, a squeaky clean and spacious gym,

In the men’s bible study this morning, we looked at the 5th chapter of Acts. In it, the apostles are arrested by the high priest and thrown into prison because they keep talking about Jesus in the temple and surrounding areas. They’ve been told NOT to talk about Jesus there, and as his witnesses, they can’t help but speak of what they’ve seen and heard (4:20).  Then, something amazing happens: an angel breaks them out of prison and tells them to “Go, stand

On Sunday, I spoke about – and challenged us – to “be great”.  And by “great”, I didn’t mean what we typically think of as being “great”.  I meant “great” in the way that Jesus showed us and leads us on: Compelled by great compassion, we are called to be a great commission people, in the way of the great commandment. But if we want to “be great,” there’s two more “greats” I want to mention to you.  The first, by way of warning.

I hope you’re doing well on this second Wednesday of Lent. Lent is the season where the church traditionally looks back at Jesus’ journey to the cross in the final days of his life, as it looks ahead to his resurrection at Easter. I’m not sure what Central has done historically in regard to Lent, but this year, we’ll be looking at Lent through a different and very particular lens: love.As I introduced last week, this Sunday we’ll be kicking

Here’s something I’m realizing about myself: I could preach on the church – and the mission of the church – forever. As I’m preparing any individual sermon on any given week throughout our current “What in the World?” series, I continually want to break up what I’m writing into 2 or 3 new sermons…or series (for instance, on Friday, I briefly considered breaking up last Sunday’s sermon into 3 different sermons…which I had already broken into 2 different sermons!). I guess

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together

“Now is the time when people will be reaching out to God…and the church must be ready to show them the love of Christ.” This is a quote from Gokhan Talas, founder of the Miras Publishing Ministry in Istanbul, Turkey - taken from an amazing article in Christianity Today about the response of the church to the earthquake in Turkey and Syria. I encourage you to read it, and support one of the agencies that is on the ground helping in the affected areas.